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The US freezes almost all foreign aid



CNN

The United States Department of State has frozen almost all foreign aid worldwide with an immediate effect after President Donald Trump issued a high reach decree on Monday to put a brake on that aid for 90 days.

The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sent a cable, seen by CNN, to all diplomatic positions in the United States this Friday describing the measure, which threatens billions of dollars of financing of the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs worldwide.

Foreign aid has aroused the moods of Republicans in Congress and Trump government officials, but financing represents very little of the United States General Budget. The scope of the decree and the posterior cable have stunned humanitarian officials.

The cable demands the immediate suspension of existing foreign aid and puts the new help in pause. In next month, according to the cable, the Administration will develop standards for a review of whether the assistance is “aligned with the foreign policy agenda of President Trump”.

“Decisions on whether to continue, modify or finish the programs will be taken after this review,” says the cable, pointing out that this review must be completed in 85 days.

The State Department decree provides for an exemption for emergency food aid, as well as for foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt. The cable does not specifically mention other countries that receive foreign military financing, such as Ukraine or Taiwan.

A humanitarian official said that the pause is incredibly disruptive and said that the details of the cable are “as bad as they can be.”

Another official declared CNN that, although they expected that there were cuts or changes in the aid to specific areas, they did not expect such a radical and immediate pause. They assured that the humanitarian needs worldwide are pressing and that a freezing of the help of the United States, the largest humanitarian donor in the world, could be harmful.

In his decree, Trump said that “the industry and the bureaucracy of US foreign aid are not aligned with US interests and, in many cases, are antithetical with US values.”

However, one of the officials said that assistance programs, such as those related to world health, to which freezing is directed, are of interest to the US and had had bipartisan support.

“Ensure that there are no pandemics results in our interest. We are interested in world stability, ”they said.

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